As wireless systems continue to evolve, communications between a mobile switching center (MSC) and its base stations are moving to an Internet Protocol (IP) based transport mechanism. (As used herein, the term wireless systems refers to e.g., CDMA (code division multiple access), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the proposed UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), etc.) As such, “push services” are envisioned as being available on, e.g., UMTS. In “push services,” a user goes, e.g., to an Internet web site to establish a profile for the data they want sent to them and the time they want it sent. Once those conditions have been satisfied, the messages are automatically “pushed” to the user's equipment (UE) (also referred to herein as the mobile station (MS)).
Continuing with UMTS as an example, Technical Specification (TS) 23.060 requires that the MS requests symmetric traffic classes (uplink—from the MS to the GPRS, and downlink—from the GPRS to the MS) in a packet data protocol (PDP) context (e.g., see 3G TS 23.060 V3.4.0 (2000-07) 3 GPP General Packet Radio Service (GPRS); Service Description; Stage 2 (Release 99)). As such, the Quality of Service (QoS) information element (IE) described in the above-mentioned TS 23.060 specification only allows an MS to negotiate for one traffic class (covering both the uplink and the downlink) in a PDP context activation procedure. In addition, if the GPRS doesn't have sufficient resources at that time to meet a particular QoS request, the MS has to retry with another QoS request, via yet another PDP context activation procedure. Such retries create unnecessary delay in setting up a PDP context with the appropriate QoS that the user desires.